The Last Hunger Games
by rose013
Summary: Katniss and the District 13 council have chosen, there will be one final Hunger Games, using the Capitol's children as the tributes. Luana is one such tribute. Out of the 24 entered in the last Hunger Games only one will survive, and Luana wants to win, but even against the softened Capitol children there is some serious competition. What will she do to survive?
1. The Reaping

**The Tributes**

**Girls**

Luana Blau**  
**Alyn Engel**  
**Xanthe Dree**  
**Breena July**  
**Jaunie Good**  
**Isra Fawn**  
**Aira Lee**  
**Amber Ceeley**  
**Caden Smith**  
**Chailyn Dresk**  
**Daisy Speel**  
**Etta Brown

**Boys**

Bo Key**  
**Dustin Flue**  
**Haru Faust**  
**Troy Ha**  
**Elan Leen**  
**Ryo Hulo**  
**Crevan Henry**  
**Aren Ellis**  
**Derex Tru**  
**Ketan Dixon**  
**Brice Foster**  
**Vian Drew

**Chapter One: The Reaping**

I finally understood what the other kids went through each year, though I guess for them it was even scarier because some of them had their names in there over 50 times! I couldn't believe that we were having to do exactly what we had watched every year, that we would be seeing people we knew on the screen instead of strangers. That would be so appalling! _I'm not going to be chosen, _I thought, calming the shivers that were running down my spine, _there's got to be at least a hundred names in there, my name is only in there once. _I assured my rushing brain. I won't be picked, there's no way. I see a woman with brown braided hair and scars all over walk up on stage with someone else, it's a boy, correction, a man. He has scars too but his hair is a pale sandy blonde and he looks like he doesn't want to be up there doing this. It's good to know that at least someone cares about us. The woman spread her arms out in a welcoming gesture.

**"**We are here to start the 76th, and final, Hunger Games. We wish you the best of luck, and may the odds be ever, in your favor," ugh, on the receiving end those words _do_sound rather vulgar. She reaches a hand into a big bowl at her side and pulls out the first of twelve papers. "The first woman tribute will be..." she paused to unfold the paper, and the crowd stilled, tension heavy and uncomfortable. We weren't used to tension, but how could there not be some on this day, there was an unspoken agreement throughout the Capitol people, no one will volunteer this time, even if their sibling is sent off like Katniss' was. There is no volunteering.  
**  
"**Xanthe Dree, next Breena July, Jaunie Good, Isra Fawn, Aira Lee, Amber Ceeley, Caden Smith, Chailyn Dresk, Daisy Speel, Etta Brown, Alyn Engel, and finally," she paused, the crowd murmured, the sound filling the air. "Luana Blau" I stood there, rooted to the ground. This could not be happening, there must have been a mistake. I couldn't have gotten picked... Could I?  
**  
**The man on the side reached into his bowl and said in an almost sad voice, "Now for the boys," he too paused to unfold the first paper. "First, Bo Key, next, Dustin Flue, Haru Faust, Troy Ha, Elan Leen, Ryo Hulo, Crevan Henry, Aren Ellis, Derex Tru, Ketan Dixon, Brice Foster, and finally, Vian Drew," I knew none of the boys chosen, they must have lived in a different sector of the Capitol. My mind was still half frozen in shock as the guards swept through the crowd picking up the tributes as they passed through rows. Most were in shock or were just resigned to a certain death now but some were screaming and kicking, trying to escape back to their parents or siblings.

****The man and woman were having an argument up on the stage but someone interrupted my line of vision. It was one of the guards.**  
"**Come along," he said, "Do you want to walk or will I have to carry you?" he asked, his voice growing a little softer.  
**  
"**I-I think I can walk," I murmured, taking a shaky step forwards. He nodded and walked alongside me towards the people on the stage. My eyes widen when I saw who they were, it was Katniss and Peeta. _The_Katniss and Peeta. Katniss threw her hands up at something he said and retorted, "We might as well just let them kill us!" Peeta said something in a much quieter voice, glancing over at me.  
**  
"**Keep moving," said the guard, nudging me with his gun, I stumbled but kept walking forwards until I reached the rest of the group of kids. A lady with a bleak smile said, "You'll each have your own rooms and you will eat in a common room, you will train for three days and receive your scores by the judges. Then the Hunger Games will begin. This will happen over a four day time period, use your time well." she waved a hand towards the hotel that we were supposedly sleeping at, it was the same place that the original contestants had stayed in.

We entered the building, it still had all of its elegant flair, like all buildings in the Capitol did, we only wanted the best. But now, walking in as a tribute, I could barely even think that word, it was terrifying, what if I _died?_

I guess that was the point that they were trying to make though, this is what you did to us for 75 years, for one year, you will feel our pain. It made sense, we had killed 1,724 kids in those years, what they were doing, it was way less barbaric. They wanted revenge, but they didn't really want to kill us, at least, I don't think all of them did.

All I want to do at this moment is go home, feel the relief that I wasn't chosen after all, I was just another kid in the world. But I would never be just another normal kid ever again, I'm not sure I was to start with. When we got on the elevator the boys started getting off in groups of two.**  
**_Oh yeah, they didn't set this building up for tributes all from one place. This was for 12 districts_. When the boys were all off the girls started spilling off, I stepped off on level 10 with a girl that had black hair and neon green eyes (yes, neon). Her lips were a bright bright pink and skin the color of a faded wicker chair. It put into relief how I must look in comparison to the rest of them.

****Sure, my bright red hair with strands of orange and gold looked pretty, but it was all natural. My deep blue eyes? Natural. My tall slim figure? Natural. All my friends neon assets and body "accessories", faces that looked overly pretty or like animals? Sooooo not natural.**  
**The level that we were on was beautiful, with bright colors and cutting edge furniture and appliances. _How did all of this manage to stay intact during the war?_I wondered, I ran my fingers over the beautiful counters and table. It had been awhile since I'd seen anything this close to beauty.**  
**I yawned and headed for my bedroom, something told me that tomorrow was not going to be pleasant. As soon as I lay down on the bed I was a goner, I don't think I would have heard an atomic bomb if it had exploded in the building next to us.


	2. Training Begins

**Chapter Two: Training Begins**

I was running, the trees were behind me, to my left and to my right. There was nowhere to go but forward. I skid to a stop in front of the massive lake that stood between me and the Cornucopia. The shrieks and cries of the beasts sounded behind me, they were getting closer. I heard the crunching leaves beneath oversized paws and the labored breathing of others trying to escape the same fate that I was.

I had no choice, I dove. The water froze me to the bone and for a second I sunk, the water shutting off my brain. Then my instincts kicked in and I swam for the opposite shore, my fingers and feet numbed first, then my arms and legs. I heard the screams coming from the beach and I swam harder, finally I felt the sandy bed of the beach, gasping for breath I pulled myself out of the water, and right into the path of a huge monster.  
**  
**Its feet were the size of dinner plates and hunched over it probably would have reached my shoulder, had I been standing. Its eyes were glowing and purely evil, I swallowed a scream and slowly dragged myself up, I wasn't going without a fight. The thing threw back its massive head and howled, then it lowered its gaze back to me. Cautiously I looked for an escape route, there was none, any way to kill this thing before it killed me, there wasn't anything but sand, water, and the Cornucopia. The _Cornucopia_. Of _course_, if I could only get around this thing.  
**  
**I shifted to the right, it growled menacingly. I moved the left, it growled again. Desperate, I feinted left and then sprinted right. Digging my feet into the sand and taking off at full speed, I didn't let myself think about how much bigger it was than me. Then I was knocked to the ground and tasted sand in my mouth, felt hot breath on my neck, and the fangs as they started to rip into my neck.  
**  
**I bolted upright in bed, a cold sheen of sweat covered my entire body and every muscle was so tight that I could barely move. I forced myself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. The clock there glowed a happy blue 12:00 back into my face. I'd only slept two hours?  
**  
**I gripped the counter in one hand, shoving my hair out of my face with the other. I needed to get a grip. I was not going to die in there. I was going to win, and come back, see my family, find someone that I could love, have kids. I don't care if everyone there despises me because I'm from the Capitol, some of the district people have moved here now, of course, they'll claim that since they weren't born here and we were that we're different.  
**  
**_I just want to live, _I wanted to cry, _Dammit Luana, get a hold on yourself! You are not crying! You are going to hold your head high and win this thing!_I took a shaky breath and clambered back into bed, at that point it felt like sleep was hopeless but I had to try.  
**  
**Someone was shaking me awake what seemed like minutes later, but light was filtering through the window to my right and I blinked sleepily.  
**  
"**Get up girl! We're going to miss training!" said the girl who was shaking me, the girl I shared this floor with, she was already dressed and ready. I wondered why she bothered getting me up at all, one less person at training meant one other person not prepared and another easy opponent. I certainly wouldn't have woken her up.  
**  
**I pushed the blankets off and pulled on the first thing that I saw, which happened to be some sort of training suit. Too tired to do anything elaborate with my hair I just pulled it up and left it at that.  
**  
"**An announcement just came on a few minutes ago and when you didn't come out I came in to see if you were up. Training starts at 9:00." we simultaneously looked at the clock, 8:50, I sighed, we would be on time.  
**  
"**Come on," I murmured, heading for the elevator. "We need to get out there."  
**  
**Training was a disaster, and that was putting it kindly. I went through the stations and learned everything that I possibly could, but Capitol children are just not grown up in the same tough environment as the tributes before us were. The Career children even started training early in their lifetime, though it was supposed to be against the rules.  
**  
**I couldn't even draw back the string of a bow, let alone aim and shot it. And don't even get me started on the weights, those things were impossible. I did find a few things that I was good at though, climbing, camouflage, and traps. Traps, traps, traps.  
**  
**I loved those things. They didn't take any physical effort, other than putting them together and they worked with twice the strength I would ever have. If I was going to have any hope of survival it would be because of traps. I also wasn't half bad at knife fighting and throwing, aiming was easy enough when the weapon wasn't fighting you all the time. I had no idea how Katniss got to be so good at using those things, they were so difficult! Training was mainly uneventful except that two guys got in a fight, I think it was Derex and Keran, Kelan, Ketan? Something like that.  
**  
**They were all up in each others faces over god knows what. The one kid punched Derex in the nose and at that point one of the supervisors came running out. "Stop that!" she had shouted, "You'll have plenty of time to finish that out in the games!" they had avoided each other for the rest of the day.**  
**When we finally got back to the room I was ready to crash again, last night's sleep had not done anything for me. But something was bothering me, "What's your name?" I asked the girl I was sharing this level with. She smiled at me.  
**  
"**Alyn Engel, it means Pretty Angel, isn't that nice?" she said, still smiling. She _was _pretty, if you liked that fake almost electric look.  
**  
"**What's your natural eye color," I asked, staring hard at her, picturing, no, she couldn't be...  
**  
"**It's brown," she frowned at me, "My eyes are prettier now that their green aren't they? My sister on the other hand, she didn't need to get her eyes colored even though she did anyway. I tried to tell her that purple is a perfectly fine eye color but she hated..." that's why she seemed so familiar, the bright cheery smile, the delicate facial structure. She was my best friend's little sister.  
**  
**I remember Jacie telling me at least twenty times that she hated her normal eye color. "Normal people aren't born with purple eyes!" she'd said adamantly, even when I tried to tell her that I loved her eyes. This was just wonderful, I couldn't let her little sister die! I had to keep her alive. I just had to.


	3. I Train With Alyn

**a/n - I should tell you, off the bat, that I feel awful. I haven't updated in I don't know how long! It makes me feel insanely guilty when I don't update, I have plenty of excuses about why I haven't updated but I'm sure you don't want to hear them, so just know, I haven't given up on this story! There's just been a lot of stuff going on recently and I haven't had a lot of time to write :(. I also apologize for the glaring shortness of this chapter also, please don't be mad! I promise that I'll update more consistently (and quickly) from now on!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own the Hunger Games. All rights go to Suzanne, who created the amazing characters and world in which I am using, etc.**

Chapter Three: I Train With Alyn

Alyn was a complete airhead, she didn't know how to do anything. Of course, in the Capitol there had always been Avox to do the chores for us but she didn't even know how to hold a knife properly. I sent her through the stations that I had been through yesterday and just hoped that she retained at least some of the information.

I worked on my knife throwing and fighting, I tried the bow again and this time I didn't have as much trouble as I'd had before, at least I could draw it and shoot. Some of the others were worrying me, I made sure to learn their names so that I could keep a watch out for them, I didn't need a greater chance that I would die in this thing than I already had.

Apparently some of the kids parents had been training for this since the war, leaving the rest of us way behind. I marked out the ones I thought would be the biggest threats. From the boys side Bo, Haru, and Vian, out of the girls it was Xanthe, Caden, and Etta. They could throw with precision, shoot, and lift heavy weights. Etta was even good at camouflage.

Later I went through a special plants and what to eat, how to survive sort of station, and a knot tying station, never knew when that could come in handy.

When I saw Alyn coming up from behind me I spun quickly and grabbed a spear, I should learn how to use one. She just stood there, looking at me with wide green eyes. I sighed.

"How did your stations go?" I asked half-heartedly when I saw that I wasn't going to be able to ignore her.

"They went great! I'm really good at the bow! And painting! I'm not half bad at knots either!" she said, practically bouncing with happiness. How could this girl be happy in the situation that we were in? She most certainly knew that she would probably die, even though I would do everything I could to prevent that.

"Work on traps or something, find something you haven't been to and go to it," I muttered, trying to get her out of my way so that I could work on the spear, I also needed surprise on my side, I didn't want anyone to know that we had partnered up.

By the end of the day I was worn out and sick of the training. Why didn't they just throw us in the arena already? What were we worth to them, nothing. Tomorrow it was a different kind of training, for whoever won really. We had to go on a "talk show", though it was nothing like what we had held. I was not looking forward to it.


	4. The Talk Show

**a/n: seeing as it is nearly 1 in the morning here I won't even try to claim this to be my best writing but I wanted to get it up as soon as possible for you guys! Hope you enjoy!**

**disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. The end.**

Chapter Four: The Talk Show

When I got up the next morning there was a deep blue dress with a low back hanging on my door. I stood slowly and fingered the material, it slipped over them like water. I hadn't felt anything like this since before the war. Then my face hardened, _and it could quite possibly be the last time that you feel it too_, I thought angrily, shoving out into the kitchen.

I grabbed some food that came mysteriously before I was up and ate, careful not to overdo it, it wouldn't help anything if I felt sick for the rest of the day. A quick look into Alyn's room proved her to be fast asleep, and I felt no need to wake her, considering that she wouldn't even need to be awake for hours, let the girl sleep, where she doesn't need to think about going into the arena.

Suddenly, I put down the bit of food that I was holding, feeling sick to my stomach as the thought of that really sunk in. One more day, one more day and then I'd be in the arena, and I'd not only need to look out for myself but my best friend's little sister too. I sat down and started at the blank TV screen, the sleek black, like a square pool of ink. I don't know how long I sat there but the next thing I knew Alyn had her hand on my shoulder, looking at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked, for once her voice was quiet and had lost all of the pep that I had come to know from her in the past day or two. I shifted my gaze over to her and looked her up and down.

Her eyes were downcast and her shoulders slumped. I reached forwards and pulled her towards me, crushing her in a hug. Tears dripped out of her eyes and I hugged her tighter, somehow this girl, someone I had barely known for a few days and the occasional times I'd seen her at Jacie's house, had become almost like a little sister to me. It scared me a little to be completely honest. I didn't need anyone in there that I didn't want to die, but somehow she had slipped into my life and made a place there.

"Shhhh, it's gonna be alright. It's gonna turn out alright," I said, rubbing her back soothingly. She shook a little bit and then pulled back slightly, rubbing her eyes and smiling a watery smile.

"And you're going to be alright too," Alyn whispered, hands gripped into tight little fists. The spark of determination had come back into her eyes and I knew that she would be fine. She had the will to live, and anyone who wanted to win bad enough would find a way. A bell rang somewhere above us, signalling a sort of intercom.

"All 24 tributes will be expected in the lobby in 30 minutes to commence interviews. Thank you." then it clicked out, the world sounded suddenly silent and Alyn nodded slightly to me before slipping back into her room to change into whatever outfit they had left her with.

_The dress did fit me well_, I thought as I stood in front of the mirror a few minutes later. It was the right size and style for me, and the color was amazing against my pale skin. For them growing up in a world where they slipped past electric fences to hunt illegally they could be pretty fashion forward when they wanted to be.

Alyn was waiting for me by the kitchen, fingering an apple thoughtfully. She smiled when I walked into the room, eyeing the dress dragging on the ground behind me. She was wearing an emerald green cocktail dress with layers of tulle that made her look something similar to a those princesses in old stories from back when there was a United States. We made our way to the elevator, then across the hallway to the lobby, where the other contestants were waiting. Another two arrived and then someone in the front stood, nodding once to us, and walked towards the door, not even looking back to see if we were following.

The crowd of us followed somewhat uncertainly, not quite sure of what was going on. This was nothing like our shows so far, except for the dressing up in weird and ridiculous things, that they had down pat though. We made it out the door and down a back alleyway, through another door, across a wooden floor that was filled with mirrors and desks piled high with makeup, and waxing tables. Anything beauty related that you could think of was there, and then some. I knew exactly where we were. Backstage.

"Are you nervous?" Alyn whispered to me, I shook my head and glanced over at her. I was surprised to see that she was shaking terribly, biting down on her bottom lip hard. There first person's name was called as I bent down in front of Alyn.

"You listen to me," I said, lifting her chin so she was looking me in the eyes. "You can do this, I know you can. You're strong and determined, and just as prepared as everyone else. These people won't know what hit them," I said with a smile and slowly her tears dried, I watched her for another moment before my name was called and I stood. Trying to seem more confident than I actually was, which wasn't hard, because I was scared shitless.

I almost stopped dead in my tracks when I came out of stage and saw Katniss and Peeta sitting there, but I forced myself to keep moving, put one foot in front of the others. When I had finally sat down Katniss turned to me, not smiling, showing no emotion, and asked me.

"What was it like?"

"I beg your pardon?" I asked, confused as to what she meant. _What had what felt like?_ I thought as Peeta shot me a small smile.

"What was it like when you heard your name called?" he clarified for me and I actually saw something flicker in Katniss' eyes.

"It was... terrifying I guess," I said, trying to be honest and forget about the cameras catching every word I said and projecting it through every house everywhere in Panem.

"How so?" he asked.

"Well, I never thought this would happen," I said and he shot me a smile.

"What do you think about you're experience so far?" he asked again, leaning back in his chair.

"I guess I'm taking it day-by-day. If I think about every little thing that could go wrong then it just makes me freak out more than necessary and then I spend time I could be training worrying. I need all the practice I can get before I get in there," I said and I saw something that I thought might be pride, or something similar, in Katniss' eyes, but it was gone so fast that I thought maybe I had just imagined it.

"Thank you for speaking with us," Katniss said and then turned and called the next name. I glanced at a clock in passing as I left the stage. One day, seven hours, and 32 minutes until we were in the ring. And counting.


	5. AN

**AN:**

Alrighty you guys, so I've been having a difficult time writing this story and I'm going to take a little time away in favor of a few other fanfics I've been dying to write, so this is on hold... Indefinitely for now... But do not fret! I'll be back! And when I come back, hopefully full of new ideas for this fanfic, I will most definitely edit and bulk up previous chapters along with adding new ones! Until then!

-Lots of Love! Rose


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